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The Canadian Champion, Friday, June 03, 2005 - A3 Halton elementary teachers continue work-to-rule UciI villes put on /zo/d ajier contract negotiations stali By JASON MISNER Special ta The Champion Halton District School Board's 32,000 elementary students face at least another day of teachers refusing to participate in extracur- ricular activities as work-to-rule sanctions continue. 'Me Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, Halton district -representing some 1,800 teachers - started ils sanctions Wednesday moing after talks to negotiate a new contract stalled Saturday aftemnoon. Under the sanctions, teachers are arriving at school 15 minutes before the start of class and leaving 15 minutes after the end of the sehool day. This means teachers are not participating in extracur- ricular activities like sporting evenîs, school fundraising activities and staff meetings. What won't be affected are the end-of-the-year school trips for Grade 8s since these events were organized prior 10 negotiations. The two ides, however, are now back at the bargaining table. Maureen Weinberger, local ETFO president, said the union and board met for 16 hours starting at around 2 pin. Wednesday and progressmng well int Thursday moing, desperately trying to work out a deal. No deal was reached nor was a tentative one offered. Ms Weinberger remains hopeful a deal wiIl be reached soon. "There was movement by both parties but we're not there yet. We're certainly gomng to continue 10 work toward getting a fair collective agreement," she said. "We were talking to each other and that is always a good thing."* The board sounded a little more pessimiàstie. "I'd hope we'd be a whole lot dloser, if not settled, s0 we still have a ways to go," said Dawn Beckett-Morton, the public board's executive officer of human resources. "I'd like to think we can do something quickly." assoc lo0to>,s Colour, Cult & Style F08U p b o ours, cul &aStyl i to $5Q for e Q S ¶Book your appointments for,;f * Graduation and Prom NOWI- I 162 Main St. E., Milton 905-878-2030 V for Pahe' Dg carae Su li "I'd hoped we'd be a whole lot doser, ilflot imeet again at àny time, including the svcckend. settled, so we stil have a ways to go. I'd ike Meanwhile, the Ontario Ministry of Education has suspended nesv special funding t0 the Halton District School Board as well as to t"in we cmn do something quickly."1 eight other boards for deciding bo re-impose work-to-ruie sanc- tions, Amanda Alvaro, press secretary to Education Minister DAWI ~TMO 1OfiGerard Kennedy, said. The stipulations for receiving $128 million in special funding from the province included no accelerated job actions by teachers Il's unclear at this point how long the work-to-rule sanctions wilI and reaching agreements with unions before a midnight continue since there is no scheduled date for both sides to meet Wednesday deadline. again. Most Ontario teachers' contracta expired August 31, but in mid- Weinberger said union officiais will consider what was dis- April Mr. Kennedy announced a provintcial agreement between cussed at the bargaining session and will also consuit with their the school boards and the public teachers' unions that would cover provincial counterparts. Ms Beckett-Morton said outgoing salary increases of about 10 per cent over four years. Boards were Education Director Dusty Papke was attempting to contact the t0 take that money and bargain contracta that included local bene- Ministry of Education 10 gel direction on what 10 do next.- see WORK-TO-RULE on page Ai 5